The war machine is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, yet some of the biggest and most well-resourced environmental groups are not speaking out about the cost of war.
We are asking The Nature Conservancy, whose mission is “To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends,” to use their resources to speak out about the threats to the planet posed by a $1.5 trillion war budget proposed by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump, and currently being deliberated by Congress. The Nature Conservancy, with its vast membership network and an over $2 billion budget, has immense potential for influence. They’ll have a large presence at upcoming international events like New York Climate Week, giving even more visibility to the messaging of their choice. This is a moment that calls for these resources to be directed toward one of the largest threats to TNC’s stated mission: the war budget funds the world’s largest institutional polluter, a military whose violence and destruction function as the primary enforcement mechanism of the fossil fuel and mining industries, as well as continuous development of AI data centers. We need groups like TNC to understand that the anti-war and environmental struggles are one and the same, and to join our movement to Cut the Pentagon. We’ve already reached out with no answer, so now we need your help in knocking at their door. Join us in sending a message.
We, the undersigned, are reaching out to The Nature Conservancy because your mission, “To conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends,” inspires us, and we want to let you know about the costs of war to the lands and the waters. There is a historic and horrific $1.5 trillion war budget that has been submitted to Congress by War Secretary Hegseth. This budget directly threatens your mission, and more broadly our collective survival on this planet. Given the urgency, an organization with your abundance of resources could have an immense impact — your revenue is at least a hundred times more than all anti-war organizations put together.
CODEPINK has been working to bridge the anti-war and environmental movements for decades, and this is one of the most decisive moments that we have seen to join forces. There is momentum to cut this budget for the first time in decades, because this budget would expand and solidify the all-out destruction and occupation of land around the world.
The Department of War is the world's largest institutional polluter, and it has more than 800 bases globally and hundreds in the U.S. — all of which are known to have extremely toxic contaminants like PFAS. The Pentagon is one of the world’s largest landholders, and each base is the result of massive destruction of the land. The Pentagon also acts as one of the largest enforcement mechanisms for the fossil fuel industry, establishing bases in resource-rich regions and starting wars to ensure the continued extraction of fossil fuels and minerals. Poisonous AI data centers are being built around the country, including on military bases without regulation, and are financed by companies contracted through the war budget and often by the Pentagon itself. We should begin to think about what could be done alternatively with all the money, water, and land that this environmental monster is hoarding.
In short, cutting this $1.5 trillion budget could be a generational win for the environmental movement. And we have a real opportunity here: Senate Democrats recently voted to block the NDAA, and there has been a bill introduced by Ed Markey to cut the proposed budget in half. This is historic progress.
We are available to meet to share more and help you find ways to join the movement to stop this war budget that threatens the lands and waters you strive to protect. We look forward to speaking with you.
Onward to peace,